Before looking at what the research has found, it’s important to note one key finding about stress in children, according to Bruce McEwen, neuroendocrinology researcher at The Rockefeller University: “Stress effects are not ‘brain damage’ but [are] reversible or treatable.” So… don’t let the following research stress you out. You should be concerned if your child is chronically stressed, but you should also have the confidence that it can be reversed.

Stress and Academic Achievement

Children, like adults, feel stress. Stress in anticipation of a performance or test typically melts away after the event, and the cortisol released in response to this stress, does not remain in the brain. But, continual stress can flood the brain with a continual release of cortisol, which, overtime, can eat away parts of the brain. A study conducted with lab rats found that when injected with a daily dose of cortisol for a four-week period, the rats began to appear depressed, anxious, fearful, immature, needy, and unable to learn new behaviors.

So, when looking at how stress affects your child’s brain development and academic achievement, it is continual stress that should concern you. This is because, as the Great Schools Newsletter so plainly put it: “Brains under chronic stress will have trouble learning new things and committing new material to memory.”

Over and over our customers give us feedback that students have a difficult time remembering what they have been taught and what they have read. It’s interesting to wonder if stress is a huge contributor as to why they are struggling to remember and retain what they have been taught. Of course, learning disabilities can also be a factor that affects a child’s ability to retain information. But if both a learning disability and chronic stress are present, the problem is going to be amplified.

And although we hopefully care about the well-being of our children more than just their academic achievement, it has been found over and over again that children with chronic stress (especially those in extremely stressful situations) have significantly lower IQ’s than their peers that live in safer, happier environments.

An interesting study was conducted in Berlin in the 1990’s that looked at what separated elite violinists from the average at a prestigious arts academy. The researchers originally supposed that practice time would be the sole divider, interestingly; they found that both groups spent about the same amount of time practicing. What separated these two groups were two factors:

1. The type of practice the elite students engaged in. The elite students spent an average of 3.5 of their daily practice hours working on skills that were difficult for them. The average students simply repeated their skills, often avoiding the more challenging skills.
2. The elite students were more relaxed than the average students. The elite students got more sleep than their peers and participated in more leisure activities. Once they completed their daily practice, they set it aside and enjoyed their lives.

Staying up late studying and stressing does not lead to stronger academic performance.

What Causes Chronic Stress?

There are obvious causes of chronic stress such as living situations that include violence or abuse, but newer studies have discovered that chronic stress doesn’t have to be the result of an extreme situation. Chronic stress can result from “household chaos” and even a parent’s own stress levels. Everything in our environment affects us. Whether it’s a scary situation, or something as simple as the tension and stress a child’s parent is exhibiting.

How Can Chronic Stress be Cured?

So, what can you do? Here are three things that you can start doing today to help your child overcome chronic stress:

1. Physical exercise – the “cliché” answer… but although we often ignore anything that we hear too often, doesn’t undermine its importance. Exercise has become the cliché advice for stress simply because it works. Next time your child is appearing stressed, work your hardest to get them doing something active as soon as possible. As Monica R. Fleshner, Ph.D., explained, “Maintaining regular physical activity is one way to help promote both stress resistance and stress resilience.”
2. Improve your home life – since everything in our environment affects us, work on improving your child’s environment. Make your home a happier, safer, orderly place. John Medina, author of Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, highlights the importance of a sound home life by saying: “The emotional stability of the home is the single greatest predictor of academic success. If you want your kid to get into Harvard, go home and love your spouse.” (Not only so they can get into Harvard, but so that your child can be happy as well).
3. Keep your own stress in check – you can’t pretend life is always a perfect bubble; stressful things will happen that you and your family have to deal with. But you can demonstrate healthy ways of coping with stress to your child. Use good communication skills, exercise, try not to yell and get irritable, but rather communicate concerns and come up with productive solutions with those that may cause/contribute to your stress.

If you feel like your child is experiencing chronic stress, you should use your best judgment to decide if counseling would be helpful for your child (it often is).

So often we see people placing academic discrepancies on teachers, but for these students – the teachers did not even register as being part of the problem. I love knowing that all of the people that we talk to at Reading Horizons are diligent parents that are doing all they can to meet their child’s needs. Because, as these quotes reveal, family life can make or break a child’s success:

Parents are the biggest factor in black males’ success because it means “they will be in a good environment and off the streets. If a parent had a bad childhood, then it’s passed down generations. Their parent might not be there for them, and they’ll have no one to express their feelings to, and they’ll get in fights.”

- Dominique, 13, Washington, D.C.

“They don’t got nobody to support them at home. They need a role model.” Rasean also said it’s hard for black males to find success “because they feel like the providers of the family. They have to protect their family.”

- Rasean, 13, Washington, D.C.

Black males aren’t successful because of “drugs and stuff. Their parents aren’t doing right. They see their parents and friends smoking and cursing. They do the same thing. They want to be just like their friends.”

Prince also said a good family life and home environment are important for success in school, but a lot of young boys don’t have that “because their parents weren’t there for them. If you don’t learn something when you’re young, when you grow up, it might be hard to change.”

- Prince, 13, Washington, D.C.

Black boys lack enough positive male role models, often having only “the drug rats on the street.”

Children need someone to ensure that they do homework or do the right thing at school. “Teachers do everything they can but they need parent involvement.”

- Devonte, 19, Milwaukee

School success “starts at home. We don’t even need better parenting, we just need adequate parenting.” Many black kids don’t have a sense of belonging, and “the streets accept anyone.”

- Mikael, 20, Milwaukee

Children are “products of their environment. These kids get their morals from the culture and the neighborhood. Life outside of schools is your main life, and you adapt to that. All you see is all you know.”

Remembering to do homework or reading for schools is hard “when you are trying to figure out where you are going to lay your head on a pillow that night.”

- Deon, 21, Milwaukee

“Black parents give up on their kids and let them do whatever. White parents follow the kids and make sure they do stuff even out of school. Black moms be more into street life, taking care of themselves instead of their child. There is no dad; white people have real families.”

- Dimitric, 22, Milwaukee

“When your parents are not doing good at home, sometimes that person will drop out of school to help their parents and go to the streets to make more money to have a roof on top of your head.”

- Khalil, 13, Washington, D.C.

What parenting habits have you found help your kids succeed in school?

“Often, by the time they get a diagnosis, they usually have experienced three years of peers telling them they are stupid, parents telling them they are lazy. We know they have reduced self esteem. They are really struggling,” said Nadine Gaab, a researcher in connection to a new dyslexia study at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Soon children may be able to be diagnosed at younger ages. Instead of waiting until the age of 7 or 8, Gaab’s research has been able to diagnose dyslexia as early as 4 or 5 – the same time that children respond best to reading interventions.

To diagnosis dyslexia in younger children, Gaab scanned the brains of 36 preschool children while they performed a number of spoken language tasks. This method was used because early signs of dyslexia can include rhyming difficulty, mispronouncing words, or confusing similar-sounding words.

What did they discover? When children who had a family history of dyslexia performed these tasks, there was less activity in the areas of the brain that are also less active in older children and adults that have dyslexia. Meaning – the same brain activity is present in dyslexics that are older and dyslexics that are at the age of 4 and 5. Meaning – dyslexia can be diagnosed at a much younger age than previously realized.

This study still needs to be further researched, but, fortunately Gaab and her team have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to expand the study.

In response to this study, April Benasich, director of the Carter Center for Neurocognitive Research at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, said: “There is evidence to suggest that what is thought to be reading failure is there before the kids fail.”

If this study can replicate and expand, dyslexia diagnoses will be available before a child begins to struggle in school and before they lose confidence in themselves and their reading ability. In the near future, children may be able to be diagnosed at the age that their minds will be most receptive to reading interventions.

To be vigilant means to take careful watch and to be on the alert. A quality I respect most in a mother. I wish every mother was vigilant about their children’s needs and development.

Anyways, the other day I was excited to discover a blog by one of our affiliates that perfectly caters to “vigilant mothers.” In fact, I was so excited about this blog that I also wrote about it yesterday. It’s called smartfirstgraders.com.  As I perused the content I discovered several facts that every vigilant mother out there would be dying to know about their first grade children:

1. Children in first grade are strict judges. They see the world as black or white, right or wrong, good or bad.
2. First graders can be easily embarrassed about imperfections or mistakes.
3. First graders want and need to get outside and play, but the desire to plop down in front of the TV or a computer game can be at least as compelling. Kids may need a nudge from you, or possibly even a full-blown push, to get them outside and staying active.
4. Vague requests or directions are stressful for them, and they may have a hard time getting started without specific instructions.
5. First graders appreciate predictability and routine. It can be stressful for kids to navigate the school day, where they may encounter different rules than those they are used to at home.
6. First graders hate being interrupted in the middle of working on something. It is one of the main causes of emotional explosions in this age, so be sure to give kids plenty of time to finish a task, and to finish it well.
7. First graders often misjudge their physical abilities.
8. First graders wonder about the world and ask a lot of “what if” questions.
9. Unless first graders go nice and slow and concentrate on what they are doing, their writing does indeed tend to go all “scribble-scrabble.”
10. Kids in first grade love rules, cling to boundaries, and would appreciate a how-to book for every part of their life.
11. Your 6 and 7 year old children are developing longer attention spans. Kids will be much more likely to stick with a project until it is done, or to stick with a problem until it is solved.
12. They need lots more practice before writing and other small motor tasks become automatic.
13. First graders have a difficult time keeping still or seated.
14. Fluency is one of the ultimate goals of first grade reading. Kids with good reading fluency flow from word to word; their words move smoothly from one word to the next. They give some words more emphasis than others, read with emotion, and show feelings through the sound of their voice.
15. First graders can be rather poor sports when playing games. But it may help to understand that certain areas of normal child development–needing to be right, to win at all costs, and to be seen as perfect—are driving these undesirable behaviors.
16. First graders are at an optimal age for learning new languages.
17. First graders still have accidents from time to time, and bed wetting may continue to be a problem for some 6 and 7 year olds (or even older).
18. The development of certain of foundational language skills, called phonemic awareness, can make first grade reading much easier for children.
19. Children in first grade are very concerned with pleasing the adults in their life, and often crave affection from parents and teachers.
20. Children’s body-eye coordination is still developing, so skills like kicking, catching, throwing and striking are still emerging.
21. They generally prefer structured activities to more open-ended experiences.
22. If a child has a fine motor weakness, she may resist writing, experience anxiety about going to school, or actively avoid situations that require the use of fine motor skills.
23. Children in first grade begin to want to use real items rather than toys: helping to cook “real food”, helping authentically with chores, playing dress-up with “real” adult hats or accessories.
24. Sometimes your child will have an amazing ability to sound out words on a page, but looks at you blankly when you ask any questions about what happened on that page. This child has strong phonics skills, but her reading comprehension is not so great.
25. First graders need and crave lots of authentic praise and encouragement for their efforts.
26. Kids who are successful and happy in early grades are more likely to hold onto that confidence and motivation to keep learning.
27. By the end of first grade, kids should be counting to 100 by ones. They should also be skip counting by 2s, 5s, and 10s.
28. An important gross motor skill for first graders is called “crossing the midline”, in which children reach or move across the middle of their body to the other side.
29. Children at this age do like to play rough. Highly physical, rough-and-tumble play is a healthy part of kids’ physical development, and also serves important social functions – but should be moderated.
30. Kids are starting to notice written words everywhere, and may drive parents crazy by reading anything and everything out loud.

These facts hardly cut into all of the information you can find on smartfirstgraders.com. I would strongly urge you to visit the site and learn more about how to help your first grader truly thrive!

Visit SmartFirstGraders.com! >

One of our affiliates, Kelli Pearson, discovered this problem over and over as an after school program coordinator. Teachers wanted to help each student but didn’t have enough time to cater to each student’s needs, and parents wanted to help take this burden off of teachers but they didn’t know how to proceed.

That is the very reason Kelli put together a very resourceful site for parents that step them through activities and tips to help first graders have the most success possible. Here are some of the resources you can find on SmartFirstGraders.com to get you started with helping your first grader:

First Grade Math

• What Does Your Child Need to Know?
• Fun Math Activities for First Graders
• First Grade Math Games

First Grade Reading  

• What Do Kids Need to Know?
• Reading Games for Kids
• First Grade Books

Child Development

• Normal child Development in the First Grade
• Cognitive Development in 6-7 Year Olds
• Friendships and Social Development in First Grade
• Physical Development in 6-7 Year Olds

Visit SmartFirstGraders.com for mounds of tips on helping your first grader! >

Girl wearing ChromaGen color-filtering glasses.

Despite the many gifts that come along with dyslexia, so do many challenges. As a parent of a dyslexic child you are always looking for ways to better assist your child and minimize the challenges that are associated with dyslexia. One solution that has helped many dyslexics is color-filtering lenses. Here is some commentary from Dr. Michael R. Politzer about his experience with color-filtering lenses:

Misconceptions About Vision vs. Sight

I often hear about parents who struggle with children who have dyslexia that are told after an eye exam that their child’s vision is 20/20. They are told, “Dyslexia is not a vision problem” so they need to look elsewhere for help as their issues will not be solved with an eyeglass or contact modality.

The problem stems from the term 20/20 being commonly mistaken for vision when it truly refers to an individual’s sight. 20/20 refers to sight and not vision. 20/20, 20/30, etc., are actually measurements of a person’s ability to see a certain size object at a certain distance. Vision is the ability to understand and use the information that we see for purposeful activity. In short, visual acuity or sight measures only the smallest detail we can see; it does not represent the quality of vision to understand what we see. Your child could have perfect sight (20/20) and still have a variety of vision issues.

Dyslexia – A Vision Issue

Dyslexia is a vision issue because the child has difficulty correctly processing and understanding what they see. The process of vision is quite complex. Each eye has two parallel processing systems that must be balanced and additionally, both eyes must work together for efficient reading. If these two systems are not balanced, the child will experience the common dyslexic symptoms of words blurring or doubling, moving on the page, headaches, eyestrain and reduced reading speed and comprehension.

Color-Filtering Lenses and Dyslexia

For parents looking for answers, there are a variety of therapies available; however color-filtering lenses can offer a life-changing aid in the form of glasses or contact lenses that work instantaneously. This means that when a child is wearing color-filtering glasses or contacts, words that once wiggled, blurred or moved now remain still, and the headaches, nausea, and fatigue the child may experience goes away. As the results are instantaneous, your child will know immediately if color-filtering lenses work for them.

Research has shown that over half of people with visual reading difficulties like those commonly associated with dyslexia can benefit from color-filtering technology. If you think your child may be experiencing some of the vision issues that color-filtering lenses can resolve, have them take this 7-Question Survey to see if this type of lenses can help them.

Dr. Michael Politzer

Dr. Michael R. Politzer is currently the Chief Optometric Advisor for ChromaGen Vision. Dr. Politzer is a board certified Neuro-Optometric Physician with over 35 years of experience and is an authority in low vision, vision enhancement and rehabilitative optometry. Dr. Politzer is an adjunct professor at the Illinois College of Optometry and Southern College of Optometry. Check out ChromaGen Vision’s website, join the We Read Better Blog community, tweet @ChromaGenVision, and “like” ChromaGen Vision on Facebook.

ChromaGen Lenses

ChromaGen lenses incorporate specially designed colored filters that balance the visual processing system. The benefit of this technology is that it has a direct effect on a person’s ability to read more effectively. Many users of ChromaGen now enjoy reading where before they avoided reading at all costs because their condition caused headaches, nausea and fatigue. With ChromaGen, all those symptoms stop. The ability to read and comprehend is the foundation to a quality education. If your child attains a higher level of education they are more likely to achieve a better quality of life. We enjoy being a positive impact in that process, providing a renewed hope for a bright future.

** The ChromaGen System is FDA-cleared and patented.

Recently I discovered this video and I’m amazed by how much a child can teach himself/herself simply with access to technology:

Once you remove the obstacle of reading: learning becomes limitless.

But that all changed with IDEA 2004 which required schools to implementResponse to Intervention (RTI). Ideally, RTI identifies children who are at risk for learning disabilities and requiring the school to addresses these issues at onset.

Parents Should Know About RTI:

Tier 1 Support– Three times a year, beginning in kindergarten, all children are screened by the school to identify those who may be at risk for learning disabilities. Typically, if a child is identified as performing at the 25th percentile or below in reading, math, or writing, he or she is considered for Tier 2 support.

Tier 2 Support– If a child is designated as Tier 2, they are provided fairly intensive regular education (small group support) for approximately six to 12 weeks to help bring their performance up to grade level. Progress is monitored at least two times per month and children who do not make expected gains are considered for Tier 3 support.

Tier 3 Support– Academic support is offered in different ways with greater intensity and frequency to assist children most at risk for learning disabilities to help them reach grade level expectations. Progress is monitored more frequently, typically on a weekly basis. Consideration for special education support is given to children who do not respond to this level of support.

When Special Education Eligibility Occurs
The evaluation to determine special education eligibility may occur at any tier, though it most often occurs within Tier 3 (when a student does not respond to the most intensive interventions).

If a parent requests a special education evaluation, the school district is required to respond to the request in writing within 14 school days, notifying the parent whether the request has been accepted or denied and the reasons for that decision.

Educational evaluations performed by the school involve a review of the child’s current performance levels and need for additional data in the following areas:

• Hearing/Vision
• Health
• Academic Achievement
• Cognitive Ability
• Speech/Language and Communication Skills
• Motor Skills
• Social Skills

It is important to note that this type of evaluation will not include a medical diagnosis, which can be essential for parents to determine the type of services and support their child will need throughout their education and lives. To receive an evaluation that includes a medical diagnosis, parents must work with a private evaluator.

If You Can, Get a Private Evaluation
Private evaluations are typically conducted by psychologists (clinical, neuro, or educational) who take into account the underlying clinical and medical contributions to a child’s educational performance.

In addition to assessing basic cognitive skills, an evaluator may perform additional neuropsychological testing to understand how a child’s neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses impact his or her functioning both in the classroom and in the real world.

Essentially, school evaluations focus on the ‘what’ and private evaluations focus on the ‘why’, while both seek to generate solutions to the problems.

A large part of helping students with learning disabilities get the educational resources they need start at home. Reading Horizons offers free assessments to help you to get started.

Knowledge is power. Get some for your children.

Source: By Deana Khoshaba, Psy.D, Educational Consultation and Evaluation Services, Department of Developmental Education, Advocate Lutheran General Children’s Hospital

This statement is of crucial importance because every child wants to succeed. There is not one person on this planet that doesn’t want to thrive and reach their potential. And for children to thrive and reach their potential: reading is not optional. Reading unlocks every piece of information that is available. It unlocks creativity and new ideas. It is vital to success.

You might have a child that appears to have given up in school and with reading. But, when children are resisting help or guidance it’s not because they are resisting success, they are resisting the fear that they will fail again. They are resisting failure. It is their way of saying: I don’t know how to succeed or move forward and I’m scared that if I try again I will fail again. They are never saying that they don’t want to succeed, simply that they don’t know how.

Even if your child is struggling with reading and wants to give up, reading is not optional. You must encourage them to push through. You must help them find the success they crave. Not one child that is struggling with reading wants to be struggling. They want the answer that will make them successful in learning to read.

Here are the top 10 most viewed blog posts from the Reading Horizons At Home Blog during the year 2011:

1. Top 10 Reading Apps for Children
2. Games that Improve Phonics Development
3. 18 POSITIVE Dyslexia Symptoms
4. How to Get a Professional Dyslexia Diagnosis
5. Helpful Hints for Adults with Dyslexia or Other Learning Disabilities
6. Which Interventions Are Best for a Child with Dyslexia?
7. Pinpoint Your Child’s Reading Problem this Summer
8. How Does ADHD Affect Reading Skills?
9. Mnemonic Devices to Help with Memory
10. Create Your Own Summer Reading Camp at Home

We would love to hear any suggestions or topics you would like us to write about in 2012!